BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - The reelection of U.S. president William Clinton was the dominant political theme at the 87th annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which opened here July 6 and attracted more than 15,000 people over six days. "Four more years," chanted some of the participants when Clinton addressed a rally of 3,000 at the event July 10.

NAACP chairperson Myrlie Evers-Williams declared at the Convention Center rally that Clinton and her organization walked "hand in hand" on the issues.

"People know Clinton's so much better than Dole," Harvard University professor Cornel West told the Charlotte Observer. "Not that Clinton is that good," he added as an afterthought.

Shortly before Clinton's speech, NAACP president Kweisi Mfume introduced a resolution opposing Republican presidential candidate Robert Dole. In the statement the NAACP vowed to "promote voter-empowerment plans and strategies designed to defeat" public officials who oppose affirmative action.

Dole had snubbed the event, saying he would rather speak to audiences that "I can relate to." He said July 11 that Mfume had "spent the last decade attacking Republicans" and declared the NAACP invitation to address the group was an effort "to set me up." Dole told the New York Times, "It was a Republican, not a Democratic Senate" that passed the Martin Luther King holiday bill.

Despite the hoopla for Clinton, some of the convention participants were critical of the president. "A lot of us clap, but don't" necessarily agree with "what he is really saying," said Braimeh Kanu, president of the Springfield, Illinois, chapter of the NAACP.

"I think Clinton is just trying to make himself look good," said B.J. Hunt, an 18-year-old student from Shelby, North Carolina. "There should have been more action made instead of just saying `I feel your pain,' " Hunt added. He criticized the Clinton administration's response to the 70 Black churches that have been damaged or destroyed by arson or suspicious fires in the past 18 months.

About 250 people attended a panel discussion on the arson attacks. Panelists included Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick, from the U.S. Justice Department; James Johnson, from the U.S. Treasury Department; and Gloria Sweet, president of the NAACP's Tennessee state conference.

The federal officials discussed how cops from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI, and other police agencies could work with local residents to establish "church watches" and other surveillance.

A few participants in the workshop expressed distrust in working with police.

"I live in an area where five churches were burned within a 35-mile radius," said Sweet. She told the audience how federal agents investigating the fires accused some elderly churchgoers of lying. "These were very rural people who were passive and easily intimidated." Some of the elderly residents were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury 90 miles away in Memphis, Tennessee.

Curtis Gatewood, the 36-year-old president of the Durham chapter of the NAACP, spoke in an interview about the "1,000 Man Stand Against Church Burnings" scheduled for September 14. "Things that happen in America to Black people that oppress us as a people seem to be easily forgotten. If there are not any more burnings between now and September, this issue would be forgotten," the Baptist minister explained.

"This protest is called to maintain awareness and build on the success of the Million Man March. We thought we'd take the idea to the convention to reach those who might emulate this example. We have two months to get ministers, involve the ministerial alliance, [NAACP] branches across the state, and local Million Man March groups around the state." Gatewood reported that he helped organize two demonstrations - a march of 1,000 in December and a Men and Women Against Violence rally of 600 in March.  
 
 
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